Game On, Charles
by AllenFair
Summary: It's been five years since the girls left the doll house. Spencer, Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Alison are all coming home. Unlike previous times this time they're coming home to stay. Is Rosewood back to the sleepy, small town it once was or is Charles still there just waiting in the wings?
1. Emily

**I do not own Pretty Little Liars or any of their characters.**

It's been five years since I have been home. Rosewood. The name alone sends shivers down my spine. I hate it here. I used to love it. Being able to bike to friend's houses, walking distance to downtown, and the beautiful trails for running or hiking. I never wanted to spend my life here, but growing up it was prefect. The perfect little small town, in prefect small town America.

Then it all happened. A came and Alison disappeared. My life in the headlines, and all my secrets coming to light. We learned quickly we were better together than on our own, and I loved the friendships I made with the girls. Aria, Spencer, and Hanna. I loved them like my sisters, and then Alison came back.

I had thought it was over. Alison was back and A was dead. I had never been so wrong. Games of murder, torture, and kidnapping came, and we were forced to play.

Who do you trust the girl who's lied all her life, or the girl she tortured and had tortured you in return? Do you trust your lover or the girl who is supposed to be your best friend? Do you trust the police? Can you even trust what you see with your own eyes? I never figured out the answers and that cost me dearly.

One month. 30 days. 720 hours. 2,592,000 minutes. Whichever way you want to count it. That was the time stolen from me. The amount of time stolen in the most brutal of ways.

Who do you love more? Who deserves water? Who deserves to eat? Who deserves pain? My choices in these games? The people I had loved most. The people who had been by my side through everything. Aria, Spencer, and Hanna.

I remember the shocks, the screams, the days without the necessities. All while living in a replica of my home, my safe place knowing who caused my pain and suffering. Who can I trust now? A had won. I wanted it all to end and then A made a mistake.

'Please exit your rooms and follow the lighted path way to prepare for arrival.' Dread. That was all I could feel, and when I saw who was arriving the dread I felt doubled. Alison. The girl I still loved, the girl I had betrayed, and the girl who had tried to protect us was coming.

Then I thought of Mona. Yes, I hated her. She had tortured me. She was the reason we were here, but I worried what would happen now that she was no longer needed. Why would Charles need a fake Ali when the real one was on her way defenseless and unknowing? Then I remember fire, yelling, and running. Although it was hours of preparing, and enacting our escape that day passes like a blur.

What I really remember is strong arms wrapping around me and the scent of vanilla. Ali. I remember the sirens and seeing Ezra and Caleb. Tears streaming down everyone's cheeks. Alison had saved us. Alison had risked herself for the four people who had turned their back on her. The people who had shunned her and sent her to jail. When I think of the day we were rescued I think of Ali.

I'm snapped out of my thoughts when the barista asks for my order. Large Americano and a large black coffee to go. I moved to the side to wait for my coffee a little jumpy.

'You can take the girl out of Rosewood, but not Rosewood out of the girl.' my wife had said as we drove into town. I hadn't understood at the time what she meant, but now I do. I can feel anxiety claw up my throat. I may have escaped this town, but the memories and fears never left me. I can feel myself looking over my shoulder and jumping every time someone says my name.

My parents still lived here, and now I'm living in my wife's childhood home. It feels like high school all over again. My mother had told me last night that all my old friends were returning home. Aria had never really left going to Hollis for college, but Spencer and Hanna had. The four of us were coming back to Rosewood, and unlike all the previous times I had been forced back to this town this time we were coming back for good.

'Game on, Charles.' rings through my head. It's Spencer's voice and although she has matured and changed it still sounds like it did that night. An eighteen year old Spencer scared but defiant. But the hope that had run through my veins the night she said it, hearing the confidence in her voice the thoughts that Spencer hadn't been broken even as the rest of us were, that hope has faded. Instead dread and fear has taken its place.

I haven't heard from A since I left the doll house, but I also know he is still out there. Charles is still out there just out of my peripheral watching, waiting, collecting secrets. Waiting until he has us all in his cross hairs and then: 'Game on, Charles.'

 **I'm still working on my other stories. I know I haven't updated in a while, but I'm working on it and I will finish them. I promise, but this idea just popped into my head after the season premiere and wouldn't leave me alone. If you have any thoughts, comments, or concerns just send me a review or a pm. I'll be happy to read any suggestions too on any of my stories. - Allen**


	2. Spencer

**Spencer**

My hair is shorter now than it was when I was last here. It's still pretty long, down to my shoulders. 'You have to look professional, Spencer.' is what my mom said to me once I started the search for law schools. Always the constant professional.

'You can't slack off anymore, Spencer.' I scoff as my mother's voice rings through my head again. I never slacked off. Hasting's have to always act a certain way and look a certain way.

My entire life was one trophy to the next until _it_ happened, but by then the stakes were raised. Live or die. Freedom or jail. Friend or foe. These were my choices.

Who do love more? Who deserves to eat? Who deserves water? I can still hear their screams in my head. I can still feel the electricity shooting through my body as another choice has been made.

I hear my door creak open and snap my eyes from my reflection in the mirror to see a familiar head of brown hair step in. I can feel a ghost of a smile on my lips. It's been far too long since I've seen her, but not long enough since I've been back.

"I heard you got a new neighbor." she says instead of a greeting and I snort before turning to face her. Her hair is longer than it had last been since I had seen it. It hangs down past her ears just brushing the tips of her shoulders.

"More like an old neighbor." I sigh. I see her move towards the window to watch the men unloading the moving vans out front. "Why do you think she's back?" she asks me looking back at me and I shrug.

"Tired of no one bowing down to her?" I joke. A flash of blonde hair moves past the window and I flinch. "All hail Queen Ali." she scoffs before turning her back to the window.

I watch her as she looks around the space. "Did you redecorate?" she asks me. "Yeah…too many memories." I tell her quietly. I'm not sure if I want to laugh or cry at how normal all this seems, but it's anything but normal.

I'm back where it all started. I mean I am literally back where everything started, the barn. Since being finagled into interning at my mom's law firm I've been dreading this day. It's funny how time seems to speed up when you are loathing what it's counting down too.

Now, now I'm back in Rosewood. Rosewood. I want to vomit just hearing the name. A town I once thought I had conquered with straight A's, being a star athlete, and running clubs. A town I once call home, but now I can only call a prison.

In my time here it had taken everything from me. My freedom, my friends, my sanity. Now I'm back and sometimes I still feel like that scared little girl I was at eighteen.

"Aria…" I sigh not sure what to say. I hadn't spoken to her in five years. Our once unbreakable bond was broken. Not just broken, but destroyed. I guess that's what happens when your survival is on the line and they chose to give it to someone else.

"I heard Hanna is coming back to town." Aria says dismissing what both of us know will be empty words filled with pain and remorse. I bite my lip and nod. "Mom said Emily was here too." I whisper crossing my arms over my chest.

"I saw her at the brew this morning, but I couldn't bring myself to talk to her. It'll be nice to everyone back though." Aria sighs wistfully because she and I both know it'll never be what it once was. "Just like old times." I whisper before tensing. "A's gone Spence." Aria says touching my shoulder before walking out.

'A's gone.' rolls over in my mind and I try my best to believe it. But no matter how many times I say it I can never believe it because I know. I know in my heart he isn't.

Charles is still there lurking in the dark recesses of my mind. Charles is still there lurking in my nightmares. After five years I can still feel him just as much as I did standing in his vault when he was close enough to reach out and touch.

Now with the five of us back in this god forsaken town I know in my heart he'll be back. It's too good an opportunity to give up. "Just like old times." I mutter looking back in the mirror and I can see myself once more at eighteen.

'Game on, Charles.' I think darkly because this time Spencer Hastings is going to win.

 **Just another taste of this story. If you guys have any suggestions, comments, or concerns** **send me a review or pm. I'd be happy to hear anything and am open to suggestions. The chapters will probably be longer after this one. I don't know if I want to do chapters like this or the first one for all the girls. What do you think? - Allen**


	3. Aria

**Aria**

I feel like I can finally breathe again as I walk down the Hasting's walk way to my car.

Being back there in that _place_. I can't believe Spencer is living there. No matter how you dress it up the barn will always bring me back to that place. Back to that scared little girl who can't even look her friends in the eyes.

It will always make me think of _that night_. The night it all started. The night _she_ disappeared.

If only we had known what Alison would bring with her. If I had known I want to think I would've run the other way the day we met. If I had known I want to think I would've stayed in Iceland. If I had known I want to think I would've left this town when I had a chance.

Out of all my friends or I guess former friends now I was the only one who stayed in Rosewood. Spencer, Emily, and Hanna had fled the second they could. Even Alison left as quickly as she could. Not me though.

I used to think I was strong. I used to think I was some mature grown up ready to get out of this town. Rosewood. Rosewood was supposed to be a stepping stone.

I once had dreams of traveling the world. I dreamed of being a famous writer writing about my travels and the adventures I would go on. Maybe I would have run with the bulls in Spain or climb the steps to the Eiffel Tower or see the Great Wall of China. I could've seen the jungles of the Amazon or ride an elephant in the plains of Africa. Now those dreams are gone.

I used to write everything down and now…now I'm about to be an English teacher back at my old high school. An English teacher who can barely write a word down about her own struggles and thoughts, but expect my students too. I feel like a hypocrite.

I have tried though. Oh how I've tried. Right after I was rescued from the doll house Ezra had tried to get me to write down what had happened to me. 'I don't mean for public consumption, but something just for you.' he had said. I was so angry with him at the time. How could he even suggest that!

I just wanted a wall. A big wall, an indestructible wall. One that separated the before and after of everything that was A. But every brick I laid, every fortification I made was torn down almost as soon as I put it up. I'd see Spencer, Hanna, or Emily and the bricks would come crumbling down. I'd see Ali and my big wall would be blown to sunder.

That haunted look in their eyes, the same one I saw every time I looked in the mirror would make all my hard work crumble around me into dust. After they left I thought I'd be able to build that wall back up, but I couldn't.

Over the years I had seen therapists all suggesting I write down what had happened. For no other reason than to just get it out. I tried to, but every time I tried I couldn't get past the first couple of words.

How do you even put down what we went through into words? How can you put into words the sound of their screams? How can you describe the feeling of thirst so strong it feels like your dying? How do you explain what it feels like to die? How do you turn ink and paper into a reliving of how someone broke you like a horse?

I tried my hand at photography. Trying to find a way to get out my feelings, but no one understands the importance of a picture of an open window, but me. I know the girls would understand. I thought after a while the little things like opening a window or keeping the door open would lose their appeal. It never did. Perhaps it's because I never truly escaped my prison.

I had moved to the dorms for college and now I have an apartment downtown, but I find my prison wasn't that room in the doll house. My prison was bigger than that. My prison was this town, but I can't leave. I'm terrified to leave.

'The devil you know…' that's who I'd rather face the devil I know. I know A. Charles. That's who I know, but I know there are other monsters out there just lurking in the darkness. So I stayed afraid of what would happen if I left. Afraid of the monster under my bed.

Charles has left me alone since I was rescued from the doll house. Now though…now that everyone is back. I can't shake the feeling Charles is about to come back out.

He's done hiding now, because his dolls are all finally back. Back with new secrets and new prizes to steal. 'Game on, Charles.' that's what Spencer had said that last day in the doll house.

'Game on, Charles.' I think as I start my car taking one last look at the barn. 'Game on.' I think because I know he's coming.


	4. Hanna

**Hanna**

"Thank you." I mumble as the movers leave the last of my boxes on my bedroom floor. The man nods and says, "Welcome home, Ms. Marin."

Home. No, not home. This house, this town is no longer home. God I can't believe I'm actually back here. Rosewood. Just the name makes my skin crawl. I never thought I would ever come back here.

Once I had reached New York I thought I would never leave. I guess the real world has always gotten in the way of plans and dreams. It was a lesson I had learned here in Rosewood. After Alison disappeared and A started their little games all my plans for what I thought my life would be were thrown out the window.

This is the town where I was torn down, built back up, and then broken. I look around the room and see its blank walls. I remember the day I tore the wallpaper off. It was as soon as I had gotten out of the hospital. I needed the difference. The difference between that hellhole and this room. 'That wasn't my room. This is my room.' I had said over and over. Trying desperately to believe it. However, every time I walk into this room, my room, I can't help but think of the doll house.

Charles. That was Charles' room. Charles was the one to ruin this home for me, ruined this town for me. Charles was the one to bring me to _that room_. Charles. I haven't heard from him since I was rescued from that room. The room I was forced to play games in.

Games. I close my eyes and can still hear the started up of the generator as I sit in that room. I can feel my whole body tense bracing myself for the inevitable. I brace myself for that scream. The distant scream of unholy gut wrenching pain.

Or I brace myself for the pain. The shock of volts running through my body as my mouth opens and I hear that scream again. Distant and haunting, but this time it's from me. That scream ripped from my body unknowingly because the pain is so intense all my other senses are dulled my brain only being able to focus on that god awful pain.

A knock on the door brings me out of my memories and I snap my head to look at the intruder. It's my mom. She looks tired. She always looks tired now. It seems like even sleeping tires my mother out now.

"Need any help?" she asks and I shake my head. "No, just thinking of what I want to do with my room." I sigh. I take the time to scan over my mother's features. She's smiling at me, but it doesn't reach her eyes. It never does these days.

I'm sure she's thinking of the events leading up to my room's current state. If I could I would kill Charles. I wonder if it's terrible that I don't want to kill him for what he's done to me. Charles took my freedom, my friends, and part of my sanity. I think I could forgive all that. I think I could move past what had happened to me, but what he did to my mother… that I'll kill him for.

I remember my roommate's curious gaze as my mom called without fail every night. I remember the weekends I was forced home from my new life in New York because my mom couldn't function without knowing I was safe and sound. Couldn't function without seeing the proof with her own eyes.

I remember the trips to the hospital because the woman I once thought was invincible had suffered from yet another panic attack. I remember the nights I was woken up at three in the morning because my mom had yet another nightmare of me being back in that house. My mom had been so strong as I struggled to stay afloat and then she broke. I was the only thing she had left, and Charles had tried to take that away from her in the worst of ways. For that…for that fear and pain he instilled in my mom yeah I'll kill him for that.

Being back here in this town I can feel the old insecurities of Hefty Hanna and scared, broken Hanna start to come through, but I'm not that girl anymore. I'm not broken or scared now I'm just mad.

My mother told me my old friends were all moving back to town just like me. I know what that means. Charles may have stopped his games, but I knew it was just a hiatus. A brief break before hell comes raining down again. I knew he would be back, and I know that he won't be able to resist all his dolls being back in the same place. All of his dolls back home.

I remember that night we were rescued. Those minutes we were in his vault. Toys, pictures, and movies all of Charles. I remember Spencer looking up at that fucking camera, 'Game on, Charles.' she had said before lighting the movie reel on fire.

I remember that spark Spencer had set off in me in that moment. That angry, defiant tone that had sent so much hope through my veins. It's not just a spark anymore, Charles. No, now it's a burning raging fire. Five years ago I was a victim. I'm no longer that girl though, and I refuse to let that bitch hurt my family any longer.

'Game on, Charles' I think, 'you have no idea what's coming.'


	5. Alison

**Alison**

I turn looking around at my new office. 'Fucking Jason.' I think to myself. There are papers littering the desk. Files jammed nonsensically in the cabinets. Of course Jason wouldn't have organized his office. It looks like he just left one day and just never came back. Actually that's probably what happened.

'Fucking Jason.' I think again as my jaw clenches. He couldn't just fucking stay sober. Five years of being an adult and suddenly Jason just can't fucking handle it. Six months ago his downward spiral had my father calling at all hours of the night. Six months ago Jason had me driving at all hours of the night from bar to bar or clubs to collect his drunken ass only to deposit it on my couch. I'd come down in the morning sleep deprived to him groaning and upheaving into the trash can I had left next to him.

I remember my wife's face concerned and empathetic. I guess that's why I married her because I know without fail my face must have shown my anger. Angry that my family couldn't just be fucking normal. If only I had a normal family. I sigh just at the thought.

I hear the door open and instantly I smell coffee and chlorine. God I love my wife. On second thought maybe this is why I married her. "Did a tornado come through here?" I hear her ask as she walks towards me. Suddenly a coffee cup is in my line of sight and I grab it taking a deep breath trying to control my rage.

Rage at Jason because this is all his fucking fault. If it wasn't for Jason I wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have just helped movers carry boxes into my childhood home. I wouldn't have to be in this fucking town. Rosewood. I can feel my blood boil just thinking the name.

Fucking Rosewood. A town I was once queen in, but now a town I just want to get the fuck away from. The worst thing though is that I brought _her_ back to this godforsaken town. I had promised myself that I wouldn't. That I would never bring her back here, and I had failed. That makes me even angrier.

Finally, I turn to look at her, my beautiful wife. She's in an old shirt and running shorts her long raven hair pulled back into a pony tail. The look of absolute disgust on her beautiful tanned face has me chuckling to myself because that look is all her mother's doing. My beautiful mermaid has the untapped rage boiling in my system fizzling out to any ember. She turns to look at me raising an eyebrow probably questioning my sanity or perhaps she's afraid I'm going to break down crying.

"Sorry it's just…" I say gesturing to her face, "you look like your mom." She chuckles at that before grimacing. "I think she'd have a conniption if she were to see this." I bite my lower lip looking over the office once again.

It's going to take a lot of work to fix this up. Not just the office, but the business as a whole. I can't understand why my father won't just close this branch of the family business. He hates Rosewood almost as much as me so why keep ties here?

"I'm sorry." I sigh running a hand through my hair. It feels like that's all I've been doing the past six months. Apologizing. Apologizing for Jason, for my dad, for moving back to Rosewood. "Ali…" my mermaid sighs. I cringe a little because I can hear the resigned tone in her voice. Every time I try to apologize her response is always the same.

She just sighs my name out in that resigned tone as though she can't find a response. Can't find the words to say how horrible this is, but how okay she is with the situation. Can't find the words to soothe my conscious, to tell me it isn't my fault we're back here.

I know she isn't angry at me for forcing her back here. I know she knows I tried everything to get out of coming back to this town. "I'm sorry…I just…I never wanted to bring you back here. I never wanted to come back here. Especially not to come back to live."

"I know." she says quietly because that's what she always says. I turn to look at her where she's leaning up against my desk. "Ali your family needed us to come back here. Jason will be back on his feet before you know it, and then we'll never have to come back."

I shake my head laughing slightly because of course she's optimistic. Maybe this is why I married her because she believes in happy endings where all I see are the negatives. I lean over and kiss her softly, "I hope your right." I whisper against her lips. She chuckles against me pulling back slightly, "Oh sweetie you should know by now that I'm always right." she smirks.

There's a few minutes of silence as I move around behind my desk gathering papers. She's still leaning against the front of my desk her back turned to me when she breaks the silence. "Mom told me all the girls are coming home." I tense a little but nod even though she can't see it.

This is it the day I've been waiting for. It's been five years in the making. One would think that the day I've been waiting for would've been the day I proposed, or my wedding day, or even the day I had kids. No, this is it. I've been waiting for him, it, _bitch_ to come back out of the wood work. Charles.

'Fucking Jason.' I think as I straighten out. Fucking Jason led us unknowingly into this trap. "Emily?" I say and she turns her head to see me. "I trust you." is all she says before looking forward again worry lines creasing her beautiful face. I know exactly what she's thinking as I look at the back of her head before nodding to myself, because I'm thinking the same thing.

'Game on, Charles' I think. I may have been gone for five years, but I still run this fucking town.

 **Got a suggestion from Boris Yeltsin that I do a chapter like this for all the girls and this is the last one. All upcoming chapters will be longer than these five. If anyone has any suggestions, comments, concerns review or pm me. I love hearing from everyone and I'm open to all ideas. If you have any thoughts on new secrets you want to see or who you think A/Charles should be shot me a message. I hope you guys are enjoying it so far. – Allen**


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